Shortage: Passport Office rations booklets

The Director of Passports, Mr Eric Odoi-Anim, has confirmed that there is a shortage of booklets for processing passports.

He, however, described the situation as temporary, arising out of a delay in replenishing the stock.

Currently, the office is serving members of the public with proven emergency needs until it is able to clear about 750,000 of the booklets already in the country but which are being kept in a custom-bonded warehouse.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, Mr Odoi-Anim said, “We expected a certain number of booklets, but we didn’t get all of them. So we have to ration what we have to ensure that people who need the passports urgently are served.” 

At the time of the visit, the office was issuing passports to people whom, he said, needed the travelling document urgently.

5,000 booklets to arrive

 Mr Odoi-Anim said the passport office expected 5,000 copies of the booklet by close of work yesterday to normalise the situation.

The 5,000 copies are being released to forestall a total halt in the system and relieve the public of anxiety in trying to acquire passports, he said.

Meanwhile, he explained that administrative processes were also being followed to get the 750,000 booklets at the custom-bonded warehouse cleared.

He said once those were cleared, the six regional offices of the Passport Office would be resourced with the booklets, so that they would be able to process passport applications.

Currently, there is a backlog of about 5,000 passports to be processed by all the six regional centres and Mr Odoi indicated that the Passport Office had put in place measures to fast-track the process once the booklets arrived.

“As we speak, even though the books are not here, we have an idea of the books that are coming and they have been fitted into the system and so when they arrive we will just roll them,” he stated.

Third parties

Currently, the acquisition of a passport is expected to take 16 days for regular and nine days for express service.

According to Mr Odoi-Anim, involving third parties in the acquisition of the document rather delayed the process.

“Most of the difficulties people have had have been because they tried to use third parties. These third parties, when we have difficulties and we call back the numbers to seek clarification, are unable to help and once all the requirements have not been met, the application will get stuck in the system,” he explained.

Writer’s email: naa.bentil@graphic.com.gh